We were thrilled this year when young Theo Spearman (who was the boy next door when Laurie was little) decided to run the London Marathon for our fund. It was a huge new venture for him, both the training and the organising: and he carried it off brilliantly.
He described the experience for us:
It has been an incredible journey doing this marathon, and I was delighted to do it in the name of Laurie. I started training a year ago and it has been a real challenge. I’ve worked hard but have learnt so much from it and had so much fun doing it. I was very lucky to have been given a lot of support and I’m sure I couldn’t have achieved so much without it.
It has also put me in touch with those who have had their lives changed and devastated by cancer, and I am left feeling so grateful for life and that I have been in the position to be able to do this. People have been so generous and I do hope the money will really make a difference.
The run itself went really well. The atmosphere was incredible and I’ll never forget it. The day was beautiful but was also quite hot! I set off at a good pace which I managed to maintain for most of the run, but had to increasingly dig deep to keep going. I gave it everything I had and was delighted to finish in 3 hours 32 minutes.
We have had several generous donations this year from friends and relatives celebrating Richard Engel’s 80th birthday, and from others celebrating the engagement of his daughter, Rachel, and Chloe. One special donation came from the sale of Mr Pebbles, one of the feral kittens that Vika and Matthew had raised in our playroom this summer.
As usual we have raised several hundred pounds from donations at our open days in Fair Oak cider mill.
